Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Israel’s top military officer warned today that Hezbollah is more powerful than most of the world’s armies and that a confrontation between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militant organization was a near certainty.

Some 3,000 people gathered in the Negev Desert for “Midburn” as Israelis attempted to recreate the ‘Burning Man’ festival held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

The Israeli government will allocate NIS 100 million ($28.89 Million Dollars) in extra funding for the Religious Affairs Ministry in order to assist in preparation for the upcoming shemittah year, the sabbatical year in which Jewish farmers are supposed to let their fields lay fallow.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck back at Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Monday for calling on the government to put forth its own vision for the contours of a future Palestinian state. Lapid, Israel, the prime minister warned, lacked sufficient experience in defense or negotiations and should refrain from urging Israel toward a hasty and ill-conceived deal with the Palestinians.

Israeli Finance Minister and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said on Sunday that Israel should draw a map of its future borders with a Palestinian state.

The Middle East is facing “dramatic instability in the entire region, and we must remain alert and prepared,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said Monday at the annual Herzliya Conference.

Israel has no constitution. The reason according to local lore is that the secular majority and the ultra-Orthodox minority could not agree on how to refer to God so they never wrote an actual constitution. Instead there are a series of 13 “Basic Laws” that function as a constitution.

On Sunday, ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved a bill that prohibits presidential pardons for terrorists convicted of murdering Israelis.

The Australian government has stopped using the term “occupied” when referring to east Jerusalem, Australian media outlets reported on Thursday.

For three of the world’s faiths, the Temple Mount bears special sanctity and significance. For archaeologists, the 3,000-year-old holy site is both an El Dorado and a Holy Grail, for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict precludes a scientist’s pick and shovel ever breaking its ground. But an improbable turn of events has allowed historians a glimpse into the monument’s mighty bowels.

The European Union said Thursday it was “deeply disappointed” over the Israeli announcement to commence construction of thousands of new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and called on the government to “reverse this decision.”